A Battle of Wits
by Echo Frosts
Summary: Sora and Shiro find a surprising challenge at their doorstep: Elven Garde desires to challenge the Elkia Federation with an all-stakes game: either the elves join the Federation, or the Federation is subjected to their government! What game will Sora choose to fight the incredible magic of the Elves? Why, a game where magic can't help them: a game that only a human could win.
1. The Battle

**A/N: My favorite kinds of battles are logic battles: where you have to use sheer facts and deduce things, excluding possibilities, and creatively thinking of other solutions. This is most fun when applied to murder mysteries! So I decided to write this: if Shiro and Sora were going to be the Masters of a logic battle, this is, I imagine, the kind of game they would play, and how it would end.**

**I admit that I didn't focus as much as I usually do on the actual writing and dialogue; I might come back and spruce it up someday. But for now, I would love for you all to enjoy this logic battle...and let me know if you think you've found the solution.**

**Enjoy.**

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><p>"Oh? So the Elves desire to challenge us?" Sora sat up, surprised. He and Shiro sat in Elkia's throne room, while Stephanie hovered around them nervously.<p>

Jibril floated before them with a devious smile on her face. "They _insist_ to see the King and Queen, demanding a challenge! I look forward to seeing what my Masters do this time! Eheheheh!"

"I wasn't expecting this…" Sora sighed. He supposed it wasn't surprising; he knew they would eventually challenge the Elkia Federation. But he assumed they would attempt something more underhanded and devious.

Not a face to face challenge.

A smirk crossed his face.

"Hmm?" Shiro looked at him with piercing eyes.

He glanced at her and laughed. "I think we'll have fun with this, little sis!"

"But what about their magic?" Stephanie looked at them with wide eyes. "Won't they have an unfair advantage in any game?"

"Depends on the kind of battle."

* * *

><p>Several hours later.<p>

A file of nine Elves stood, shoulder to shoulder, facing Sora and Shiro in the throne room.

"We challenge you, King and Queen of the Elkia Federation!" Their voices boomed in unison. "You have grown in power, commanding entire nations under your rule. We would seek to annex you lesser races under our strength and power! If we win, the Elkia Federation will become subject to Elven Garde; if you prove your superiority and win, then Elven Garde will join the Elkia Federation as a member race, with all equal rights and privileges! What say you?"

"Agreed."

"WHAT?!" Stephanie yelled at him. "WHY DO YOU KEEP GAMBLING OUR ENTIRE KINGDOM?! AAAAHHHHHHH!"

As she ran around in circles, mourning the loss of sanity in the Throne, Sora waved her complaints away.

"Now, the game I propose is a simple one, in a sense." He stood.

"I propose a game of logic!"

The Game was a rather simple concept.

A narrative would be experienced by all the players–in this case, the nine Elven representatives. It was a murder mystery. As the narrative progresses, the characters will die, one by one. The Human side claims that each murder was accomplished by human magic, being more powerful than all other races; the Elves seek to show that the murders were done without magic by providing a logical explanation for the murders. The battle is, ultimately, a logic battle. The Elvish team can propose theories as their offensive move; the Human side counters with facts, which the Elvish team must be able to describe with their theories.

Every statement that the Human side declares as a fact (which will be _in italics_) must be absolutely true. Everything else can be a lie (everything not in italics). As for the narrative, it is a fact that it describes what the people in the group saw and experienced, with the exception of the culprit or culprits, who can lie about what they see.

"Ascente!" Both sides cried out.

And so the Game began.

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><p>The nine elves stood in a room around a chess board; Sora, Shiro, Stephanie and Jibril faced them.<p>

"Then let us begin. Jibril!"

She nodded and extended her wings; power flowed and focused around them, creating the narrative that they would all experience.

"Since we are the ones who created the narrative, we can be certain that the Elves can't cheat; after all, we would notice immediately if the narrative isn't how we created it. And the secrets to the puzzle are only in our mind, so they can't steal it without using a complicated spell that Jibril would easily detect." Sora explained to Stephanie. "And they know we aren't cheating, because it's part of the rules that we must explain the solution once the Game is concluded, and there can be no contradiction between the solution and the facts; otherwise, we lose."

"But doesn't that give them an advantage?" She cocked her head. "How can you be sure they won't find out the solution?"

"Because they aren't human."

The blue orb engulfed them, drawing them all into the Game.

Before their eyes, they saw an island fold out before them: a large mansion formed from the Earth, and eight figures appeared, walking in a group towards the front door.

"These are eight of the nine. I will simply call them B, C, D, E, F, G, H and I. They were coming to visit an old friend of theirs, A, who owns the mansion. Any questions before the narrative begins?"

They shook their heads.

"Then let us begin."

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><p>The group of eight chatted merrily as they made their way through the front door; A had told them, in his letter inviting them a week ago, to just make themselves home when they arrived; come by the master suite on the third floor when they are ready.<p>

So they found rooms on the second floor, made themselves comfortable and went up to the third floor, knocking on the door.

They heard a faint voice respond, as if from deep in the suite: "Go on downstairs! I'll join you all for lunch in an hour!"

This was at approximately 11:05.

They went downstairs and sat in the dining room, chatting over their lives and how long it's been since the last get-together; but once 12:30 rolled around, they became frustrated. Where is A?

So they stormed back up to the third floor…

…and found the door to the master suite locked. They found the emergency master key from a hiding place that A had mentioned previously, in the event of an emergency; using it, they unlocked the master suite.

Inside was a mangled body.

"A!" They exclaimed together. They saw, to their horror, that the body was terribly mangled. Holding back their nausea, they fled the room, locking the door behind them with the key, and gathered downstairs.

There, they went over their alibis. Almost everyone was gathered together for the while time, except for three guys who took bathroom breaks, and a group of two who went to grab something from their room: B, F, and G all went to the bathroom for several minutes at different times, while C and D went to their room for a short period of time.

Here the narrative halted.

"So." Sora paced before the chess board before slowly moving forward a pawn. "The first move is made."

The Elvish elders congregated. They did some fancy mind-meld talking thing. In the meantime, Stephanie talked to Jibril.

"This doesn't seem terribly difficult. Several of them don't even have alibis!"

"The problem isn't who could have done it; the problem is _how_. The door was locked."

The Elven leaders had apparently thought along the same lines. One of them stepped forward.

"An unknown murderer stole the master key, unlocked the door to the suite, murdered A and locked the door, returning the key."

"False." Shiro whispered.

"_There are no others on the island than the nine persons we have encountered thus far_."

"Then it was B."

"_There is only one master key, of which no copies could be made. It was not used before the group unlocked the door to the suite. Furthermore, the master suite was locked from the inside and could only be unlocked from the inside or by the single master key_."

The Elves showed no reaction, unlike Stephanie, whose jaw dropped. "What?! How did they get in?"

"B entered by a window, killed A and locked the door before exiting by the window."

Sora smirked before responding, "_Neither A, nor B, nor any of the other nine, entered or exited the room except by the doorway, which could only be passed through when the door is unlocked_."

"This is insane!" Stephanie whispered. "How could anyone get in or out?"

Jibril smiled deviously as she glanced at Steph. "Your thinking is limited. Not surprising, I suppose, given who i'm talking to."

Steph growled at her. "What else could have happened? Do you have an idea?"

She laughed. "Certainly. There are a lot of things you're assuming that aren't necessarily true. For example: did someone else kill him? Perhaps he committed suicide."

"But…that's crazy! Why would he do that?"

Jibril shook her head. "This Game isn't about what's likely, or what generally would be the case. It's about pure, undefiled logical deduction. What do the facts exclude by necessity? The solution can be anything else, regardless of how insane it appears."

The Elvish leaders took longer this time in their discussion, before finally responding, "The culprit had the door auto-lock behind them when they left. The suite was unlocked when they first arrived."

"_The door was locked from the inside and remained locked until the group unlocked the door with the master key_."

"Then he committed suicide."

"_No one, in this entire Game, will commit suicide_."

"Then A was already dead; the voice they heard through the door was not A's voice. Or, if it was A's voice, it was a recording from a different conversation."

"_A intended those exact words to be heard at that exact moment, by those exact people; A was alive at that moment_."

This particular murder was becoming more and more complicated. The Elves were going over the facts they knew:

The door was locked from the inside.

Once locked, no one could exit the room.

Therefore, all people in the room when the door was locked remained in the room until the door was unlocked.

Everyone went to unlock the door together.

Thus, the person who locked the door could not have been one of the eight.

There are only nine people on the island.

Thus, there are no other possible suspects than the nine.

A did not commit suicide.

Thus, A must have died by some indirect manner after he locked the door by at least one of the other eight.

Having settled the matter, they turned to Sora with a hint of a smirk on their faces.

"A was killed by some method where, after A locked the door, something set in motion by a human outside the room killed him, like poison or a machine. The culprit is at least one of the humans B through I."

Sora frowned and slowly exhaled. Shiro looked at him with curiosity. The Elves laughed.

"Will you not respond? Can you not cast down our theory?"

"It does seem to be the only logical conclusion…" Jibril whispered. Stephanie was astounded.

"What a strange theory…"

Sora waved the talk away. "We will continue to the next murders."

With that discussion concluded, the narrative proceeded. The group, having discussed the alibis, found that five out of eight could be suspected; they decided it best to retire to their rooms and wait for the police. They couldn't arrive until the next day due to the storm. So they split off to the second floor into three rooms. In Room One: B, E and F; in Room Two: C and D; in Room Three: G, H and I. All were observed entering their rooms alive, and all locked their doors.

Once dinner time rolled around, they called each other's rooms to arrange for dinner. But neither C nor D answered their room phone. So the remaining six exited their rooms, gathering in front of Room Two. They retrieved the master key, which they had replaced in the hiding spot after using it earlier; using the key, they unlocked the door to Room Two.

Inside, C and D were on their beds. Their throats were slit; after checking for a pulse and breathing, they concluded that both were dead.

The remaining six gathered in the kitchen. Each room stated that all their members remained in their room until they all left together.

Here the narrative froze, once more.

"Well, my pointy-eared friends! What say you? Will you accept that a human killed them all with magic?" Sora laughed.

They laughed back. "Do you think you can fool us so easily?" Nevertheless, they did not come up with a theory immediately, but discussed amongst themselves.

Steph was thoroughly confused.

"If everyone was in their rooms, how did C and D die? Did they kill each other?"

Jibril laughed. "At least you were able to consider that possibility."

Sora looked at her with false amazement. "Steph…you…"

She began to look excited. _Did I solve it?!_

"…you really are terrible at this, aren't you?"

Stephanie collapsed on the floor, groaning.

"Sora. Don't be mean." Shiro said calmly.

Jibril agreed. "She can't help her lack of intelligence."

"IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER?!"

After more shenanigans, the Elves finally approached them with a theory.

"We will get the obvious ones out of the way. They killed each other, or they faked their deaths."

"That's obvious?!" Steph exclaimed, as Sora shook his head.

"_C and D did not kill each other. C and D are both dead._"

"They died by a method or trap which did not require someone to be in the room."

"_Their murderer or murderers faced them directly and killed them in the room_."

Then the Elves dropped their major theory. "B, E and F all conspired together in their murders. They left the room, obtaining the key, and, entering Room Two, killed both C and D. They then locked the door from the outside and returned the master key."

Sora frowned, pausing. Shiro looked at him and cocked her head.

"…I suppose we'll move on."

Steph whispered to Jibril. "This seems bad. They keep figuring out the mysteries!"

Jibril, in return, frowned. "I admit, the Elves are exhausting all the logical possibilities I can see. Though they may miss a few as the Game proceeds." She shrugged. "I trust my Masters to see this through."

Steph merely frowned.

And so the narrative continued.

The six had a somber dinner. Their hopes all rested with the police; their best bet would be to hole up somewhere, all together, so that no one from outside could kill them. After all, they reasoned, they knew the others didn't commit the murders. It had to be someone from outside.

One of the Elves snickered and muttered, "Serves the humans right. Such fools."

The six remaining decided to hole up in the kitchen and dining room: bring mattresses, lock the doors and keep a steady supply of food at hand. The kitchen and dining room were actually part of the same room: the only thing separating them was a low island cabinet. There were three doors: one to a bathroom (which had only the one entrance), one in the kitchen and one in the dining room. All could be locked. There were also several windows, but they, too, could be locked. It appeared as though the room would become impenetrable.

Which only made what happened stranger. E and F went to get a mattress, but never returned. The four remaining–B, G, H and I–all remained inside the room the whole time. When E and F didn't return, they went, all together, to check on them, and found their dead bodies upstairs. They then returned to the room.

Once more, the narrative froze.

Sora smirked. "What do you think now? Two more dead bodies–two of your supposed murderers!" He laughed. "Explain that away!"

The Elves communed. Stephanie looked confused.

"It seems like there's only two possible conclusions: that they killed each other, or that the four conspired to kill them."

Jibril sighed, shaking her head. "You aren't thinking clearly, Stephanie. You're missing two other possibilities."

She frowned, thinking. "Well…I suppose they could have died by an indirect method, like poison or a trap…"

"Good…"

"…but I can't think of another."

Jibril sat back with a satisfied smile. "Let's see if the Elves can."

They had finished communing and approached Sora.

"E and F killed each other."

"_E and F did not kill each other._"

"E and F were killed indirectly, by a trap of some kind or some other method."

"_E and F were not killed by any indirect method_."

"Then B, G, H and I all conspired together, went, and killed them. The narrative told their side of the story."

"_B, G, H and I did not conspire together to kill them_!" Sora broke out into laughter. "Baffled? Confused? Ready to accept the truth about human magic?"

One of the Elves feigned despair. "Oh, woe is me! What other possibility could there be then human magic?" Then he sneered. "Assuming E and F are actually dead!"

Steph gasped. "W-what? Is that possible? They saw–"

"If they appear to be dead, it doesn't mean they actually _are_ dead." Jibril shrugged. "That was the other option. Unfortunately for the Masters, the _only_ other option."

Everyone expected Sora to frown and move on with the narrative.

But instead, a smile spread across his face, and he began to laugh. Or cackle, really. He fell back onto the floor, clutching his sides in a sudden fit of laughter.

"Has he gone mad?" Steph questioned, as she frowned at him.

Then, he spoke words that stunned everyone present (except Shiro):

"_E and F are really dead! They were both murdered in the same room as the murderer, who watched and laughed as he executed them, standing over their bodies!_ AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The Elves mastered their response of surprise, and merely turned around, forming a conclave–though they were whispering instead of mind-melding, and it sounded much more frantic and hurried than the average response of an elf.

Jibril was terribly surprised; and, because of this, terribly excited.

"Mmmm," she closed her eyes and hummed, as she thought. "I wonder where there's a loophole…"

Stephanie shook her head, flabbergasted. "Is this even possible? Who else could it be?"

Then her eyes widened. "Wait. If it's possible to doubt that E and F really died–"

Jibril's eyes widened, as she came to the same realization. She leaned back, cackling. "Very devious, Masters. Very devious."

Unfortunately, the Elves' discussion seemed to be calming down. They appeared to be drawing closer to a solution. They approached Sora, confident once more.

"We are ready to produce the final solution."

He smirked. "So you think."

They lined up as their leader stepped forward.

"There is only one possibility that remains: A did not really die. He faked his death, which explains the door locked from the inside and the seemingly impossible murder; he then proceeded to sneak out of the room, taking the master key, and killed C and D, replacing the key thereafter; and then, after the six holed up in the room, he killed off E and F when they left."

Sora was pacing throughout the entire theory of the Elves. When they finished, he stopped, turning away from them. They watched him, smiles spreading across their faces.

"Thus human magic is–" One of the Elves began, intending to proclaim their victory.

But Sora interrupted with a smirk. "–victorious."

Shiro, silent the whole time, said a single fact.

"_A did not exist in E and F's room at the time of their murder!_"

The room turned deathly silent.

"What?" The head Elf said, looking at her with confusion.

"But…that's not possible."

"A has to be the killer. There's no other logical possibility!"

"We've exhausted all the options! There's no way anyone but A committed the murder!"

The Elves spoke arrogantly, becoming agitated.

Sora laughed wildly and began to speak more facts. Each time, the Elves shrunk back more.

"When I say 'in the room with E and F' henceforth, I mean when they were killed. _The murderer and he alone was in the room with E and F._"

"_A did not exist in the room with E and F!_"

"_A did not place his hand upon the master key at any point during the Game!_"

"_A did not leave the apartment at any point during the Game!_"

"_A was not in the room with E and F!_"

"_B was not in the room with E and F!_"

"_C was not in the room with E and F!_"

"_D was not in the room with E and F!_"

"_G was not in the room with E and F!_"

"_H was not in the room with E and F!"_

"_I was not in the room with E and F!_"

"There are no other options, my Elvish friends! A human magically appeared in the suite, killing A, before magically disappearing! A human magically appeared in C and D's room, killing them, before disappearing! A human magically appeared in E and F's room, killing them, before disappearing! Admit it! Acknowledge the power of human magic! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"


	2. The Solution

**A/N: There's no need for this to be long, since it's just the solution to the logic problem. Hope y'all enjoyed it! Let me know if you want more battle of wits! I don't want to spend the time to both write a battle of wits and include a lot of characterization, as you can clearly see here, so any future battles would focus on just that: the actual battle.**

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><p>The more they thought about it, the more confused they became.<p>

There were only nine people on the island: the nine they encountered thus far.

E and F's killer was in the room with them.

A, nor B, nor any of the other seven were in the room with them.

Therefore, no person on the island was in the room with them.

Therefore, the killer couldn't be a person.

Therefore...

The Elves tried, again and again, to work their way out of the logic; but, no matter how hard they tried, they always came back to the same conclusion: the murderer had to have used magic.

Human magic was the killer.

After another hour of debating, they came before Sora and bowed their heads.

"The killer was a human using magic."

It was their acknowledgement: Sora had won. The only thing that remained was the Explanation. Did he cheat? Do all the facts line up? This was their final hope: maybe he contradicted himself somehow!

Alas for the Elves, 'twas not so.

"Well, I suppose you're all dying to know whodunit!" Sora twirled about and landed in his comfy throne. Shiro jumped onto his lap.

"There were nine people on the island, as stated by a fact: _there are no others on the island than the nine persons we have encountered thus far_. But who did you encounter, exactly?"

The eight, of course; they were clearly seen and identified. And the body in the suite.

"By the rules of the narrative, the narrative recorded what they thought. They saw a human body, which thus was the ninth person on the island; they thought that body was A; but that doesn't mean it actually was A!"

"Ah!" One of the Elves interrupted. "But you said that 'A never left the apartment,' and that 'A was alive' and that 'A intended for those words to be heard by those people at that exact moment.'"

"All of which is true! _A was never on the island!_ His assassin was there in his stead, faking his death. It's true that A never left the apartment, because you have to be _in_ an apartment before you can leave it! It's true that A was alive; just not on the island! It's true that A intended for those words to be heard by those people at that exact moment; he was speaking over a phone! This was all a set-up to kill off several of them and frame the rest for their murders!"

"From this, the truth of all the other facts are easily ascertained. The assassin could enter and exit by the window, since he wasn't A, B, C or any of the other nine, who were bound by a fact to enter and exit only by the door; he was free and able to commit every murder."

He stood and bowed. "And so Blank wins again. Stephanie: handle everything else."

And so Sora and Shiro enjoyed a good many laughs, while Stephanie had to handle nine irate and irritated Elves in the adoption of Elven Garde as a member state of the Elkia Federation. Jibril cackled and badgered the Elves until they left in tears.

The end.


End file.
